Dawn

Head of Commercial Underwriting - Commercial Lines

1. What do you do?

I am responsible for the profitable development of our commercial insurance account as well as for the management of our head office commercial underwriting teams. 

I have a team of 15 technical and scheme underwriters who work alongside our underwriting operations teams that handle day-to-day commercial business. We also work very closely with the distribution team who manage our relationships with our broker customers.

My role means that I develop the commercial underwriting strategy to ensure delivery of profitable results for Liability, Property & Motor classes of insurance. This encompasses looking for new product opportunities, maximising existing business and developing our people to a high level of technical and entrepreneurial skill as well as doing the ‘day job’ - underwriting referrals, queries and press comment. You could say it’s pretty varied!

2. What do you need to be successful?

In technical underwriting, qualifications are important and I have an Advanced Diploma in Insurance from the Chartered Insurance Institute. I have spent my career in insurance working from a trainee underwriter right through to some senior management positions in both large and small companies. To succeed I believe that you should be open to learning from excellent insurance technicians and challenge yourself with a wide range of roles (technical and supervisory) to develop of all round skills.

Within any organisation, it is important to live the vision, values and culture and to understand the company’s aspirations. Understanding all of this and how your own role fits in can help make you a motivational leader.

3. What's the Groupama difference?

Groupama Insurances is a small company that consistently 'punches above its weight' in the market, it has really high calibre people at all levels and there are excellent career opportunities. Because of its size, it has the ability to react quickly to changing trends in the market and be innovative in its solutions.